Beyonce really does run the world, it seems

Yesterday, Forbes released their Celebrity 100 list, which is – as you probably guessed – a list of the most powerful figures in Hollywood. Unsurprisingly, Beyoncé topped that list at the #1 spot, pushing down last year’s winner, Oprah, all the way down to #4.

According to the list, Bey earned $115 million last year – pretty impressive, and sorta depressing to think about. However, it’s not all about money – LeBron James came in the second spot and made only $72 million (“only”), while third place charter Dr. Dre brought in a whopping $620 million. Oprah still raked in $82 million, and Ellen DeGeneres was right behind her at #5, making an impressive $70 million. Jay-Z, Floyd Mayweather, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Robert Downey Jr. all rounded out the Top 10.

To create the Celebrity 100, we start by compiling earnings estimates for more than 200 celebrities to create a pool of top earners. To come up with our earnings estimates, we talk to agents, lawyers, producers and other in-the-know folks about entertainment-related earnings for each celebrity. That can include things like upfront pay for movies, syndication payments for old TV shows, tournament winnings and endorsements. We don’t deduct for taxes, agent fees or the other costs of being a celebrity.

Then we use Factiva to count how many times each celebrity was mentioned in print, on TV and on the radio between June 1, 2013, and June 1, 2014, the time frame for this year’s list.

We also measure social media reach with help from the smart people at StarCount. The Singapore-based company measures social networking power across 11 platforms including TwitterTWTR +0.1%, Facebook, YouTube, Orkut and Weibo. Each star’s number is a reflection of how popular he or she is on the Internet.

This year, we also added an impact ranking for each celebrity. The number is the degree of impact each celebrity has had on the entertainment industry and our culture overall during the prior year, based on the evaluation of the list editors, reporters and their sources for the list.

Huh, sounds sorta complicated. I guess by that account, it makes sense that Beyoncé would come up in the top spot. I don’t think she’ll hold onto it for 2015, however – we’re all getting a little tired from the Bey & Jay overkill.